i 


<2  4  ^ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


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Washington  Irving: 
His  Life  and  Work. 


Where  Irving  was  Baptized. 


2 


3 

Washington  Irving: 
His  Life  and  Work. 


ASHINGTON  IRVING 

was  born  in  the  city  of 

New  York  on  April  3, 

1783,  the  year  in  which 

the  American  colonies 

finally  achieved  the 

independence  which 

they  had  promised  for 

themselves  in  the  Declaration  seven  vears 

•/ 

earlier.  I  remember,  when  visiting  Sunny- 
side  with  my  father  a  few  years  before  Ir¬ 
ving’s  death,  hearing  him  narrate  (doubtless 
not  for  the  first  time),  how  his  nurse  had 
held  him  up  in  her  arms  while  General 
Washington  was  passing  by  on  horseback, 
in  order  that  the  General  might  put  his 
hand  on  the  head  of  the  youngster  who  bore 
his  name.  Irving  was  at  this  time  five  years 
old.  I  looked  with  reverential  awe  at  the 
head  that  had  been  touched  by  the  first  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  country.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  I  did  not  see  the  actual  spot  that  had 
been  thus  consecrated,  for  in  the  latter  years 


3 


4 


AA^asHington  Irving: 


of  his  life  Irving  wore  the  wig  that  is  depicted 
in  Martin’s  crayon  sketch, — the  portrait  by 
which  he  is  best  known. 

After  a  common-school  training,  Irving  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1806,  having  previously 
served  as  a  clerk,  first  with  Brockholst  Liv¬ 
ingston,  and  later  with  Ogden  Hoffman.  The 
law  never  appears,  however,  to  have  exercised 
for  him  any  fascination,  and  his  practice  at 
the  bar  was  probably  not  important.  He  was, 
however,  associated  as  a  junior  among  the 
counsel  who  undertook  the  defence  of  Aaron 
Burr  in  the  famous  trial  held  in  Richmond 
in  June,  1807.  The  letters  written  by  him 
from  Richmond  at  this  time  show  graceful 
powers  of  description  and  a  keen  sense  of 
humour.  He  was  frank  enough  to  say,  in 
chronicling  the  final  acquittal  of  Burr,  that 
the  result  could  hardly  be  said  to  be  due  to 
any  noteworthy  efforts  on  the  part  of  the 
particular  junior  counsel  who  described  the 
case. 

The  first  literary  undertaking  to  which  his 
pen  was  devoted  (apart  from  a  few  ephemeral 
sketches  for  one  of  the  weekly  papers)  was  a 
serial  publication  issued  at  irregular  inter¬ 
vals  under  the  title  of  Salmagundi.  In  this 
work  he  had  the  collaboration  of  his  brother 
William  and  of  James  K.  Paulding.  The 
Salmagundi  Papers ,  afterwards  collected  in 


M«--  S-w. 

The  Edict  of  William  the  Testy. 


5 


6 


W asHington  Irving : 

book  form,  possess,  in  addition  to  their  in¬ 
terest  as  humorous  literature,  historic  value 
as  pictures  of  social  life  in  New  York  during 
the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  famous  History  of  New  York  by  Died- 


“Conducted  every  stray  hog  or  cow  in  triumph  to  the  pound.” 


rich  Knickerbocker  was  published  in  1809.  The 
mystery  concerning  the  disappearance  of  old 
Dr.  Knickerbocker,  to  whom  the  authorship 
of  the  work  was  assigned,  was  preserved  for  a 
number  of  months.  The  first  advertisement 
of  the  book  stated  that  the  MS.  had  been 
found  by  the  landlord  of  a  well-known  inn 


_^i^L  — V«-(_> —  ^ 

-<^  /Tc^tV-  Zr  cuc^c  <2  / 

€>/iny\+  &Z<jl*  csp  ^4^ 


\ 

^■ca^Z, ^ 


z> 


-t£. 


&*->J^  6-<-*-S /L^'t^.s,'  Zcal^/  '  &sC<S<)  SOt*-  <X-«/« 


^Z/'ZZZ  ZZ~l£  XAL'XK,/  6l^&/{‘, 

o-^i_,  cZsLs 


O'  a~-e^_e-*--?  > 

y  c^ir^Le  -^_.<_  Z^-tA^S-e^  v^^t_-«s «^j£  ®*”^ 

^  c^(^i^/2t^z£i<£.,  a-Y  ^23 
iU~£c*  y  yu.„~y  ^  ^ 

.Zc~~Zt t_j^  ^  £ZZx*,  sZ^/Lje, '_  ey^  &, 

JZ  £-*~^~**^**^**~  y  tJ^~ 

A^i-  <£~*C:  <uO*^ 

a.  *Wy^  y_  ^  ^/  •  ^ 

^  ^c^ur)  Sa^cy 

^ii^.  «=/  a^J?  ^ttsZvZ/ 


FACSIMILE  OF  MANUSCRIPT  OF  IRVING’S  “KNICKERBOCKER  NEW  YORK." 


His  Life  and  WorK. 


7 


among  the  effects  of  his  departed  lodger,  and 
had  been  sold  to  the  printer  in  order  to  offset 
the  lodger’s  indebted¬ 
ness.  When  Irving  was 
finally  announced  as  the 
author,  it  was  difficult 
for  his  fellow  New-Y ork- 
ers  to  believe  that  this 
unsuccessful  young  law¬ 
yer  (he  was  then  in  his 
twenty-sixth  year)  could 
have  produced  a  work 
which  gave  evidence  of 
such  maturity  of  literary 
power. 

Irving  had  occupied 
an  excellent  position  in 
New  York  society,  a  so¬ 
ciety  which  in  the  earlier 
years  of  the  century  was 
still  largely  made  up  of 
the  old  Dutch  families. 

In  the  Veracious  Chronicle  of  Dr.  Knicker¬ 
bocker  free  use  had  been  made  of  the  names  of 
these  historic  families,  and  it  is  related  that 
many  of  the  young  author’s  Dutch  friends 
found  it  difficult  to  accord  forgiveness  for  the 
liberty  that  had  been  taken  in  making  their 
noble  ancestors  the  heroes  of  such  a  travesty 
of  history  and  of  such  rollicking  episodes. 


“And  stumping  up  and  down 
stairs.” 


8  Washington  Irving: 

After  a  brief  editorial  experience  in  charge 
of  a  magazine  entitled  The  Analectic ,  which 


Washington  Irving. 

(From  the  drawing  made  by  Vanderlyn  in  Paris,  1805.) 


never  achieved  a  very  robust  existence,  Irving 
enjoyed  for  a  few  months  the  excitement  of 


His  Life  and  WorK. 


9 


military  service,  having  been  appointed  a 
colonel  on  the  staff  of  Governor  Tompkins. 


Matilda  Hoffman. 


During  the  campaign  of  1813  he  was  charged 
with  some  responsibility  in  connection  with 
the  defence  of  the  northern  line  of  the  State, 


io  Washington  Irvings 

but  he  does  not  appear  ever  to  have  come 
under  fire. 

During  Irving’s  brief  law  association  with 
Mr.  Hoffman,  he  became  intimate  in  the 
Hoffman  f amily  circle,  and  this  intimacy  was 
kept  up  after  the  law  office  was  forsaken.  It 
was  Josiah  Hoffman’s  daughter  Matilda  who 
formed  the  heroine  in  the  only  romance  in 
Irving’s  life.  He  became  engaged  to  her 
when  he  was  barely  of  age,  but  the  engage¬ 
ment  lasted  but  for  a  few  months,  Matilda 
Hoffman  dying  suddenly  at  the  age  of  nine¬ 
teen.  At  the  time  of  Irving’s  death  it  was 
found  that  he  was  still  wearing  in  a  locket  her 
miniature  and  a  lock  of  hair  that  had  been 
given  to  him  more  than  half  a  century  before. 

In  1810,  Irving  was  taken  into  partnership 
by  his  two  brothers,  who  were  carrying  on 
business  as  general  merchants  and  importers, 
and  whose  operations  were  attended  by  all 
the  fluctuations  and  risks  which  were  insepa¬ 
rable  from,  business  undertakings  during  the 
years  of  the  embargo  and  of  the  war.  On  the 
declaration  of  peace,  when  there  seemed  to  be 
some  prospect  for  an  improvement  of  trade 
with  England,  Irving  was  sent  by  his  firm  to 
be  its  representative  in  London.  If  the  busi¬ 
ness  plans  of  that  year  had  proved  successful, 
it  is  very  possible  that  Irving  might  for  the 
rest  of  his  life  have  remained  absorbed  in 


u.  OF  ILL  Uti, 


He  was  a  great  favorite  among  all  the  children  of  the  village.”  (From  a  drawing  by  F.  O.  C.  Darley.) 


12 


Washington  Irving: 

commercial  undertakings.  The  firm  was, 
however,  in  1816,  overtaken  by  disaster,  and 
the  young  lawyer-merchant  found  himself 
adrift  in  England  with  very  little  money  and 
with  no  assured  occupation  or  prospects. 

Irving  came  speedily,  however,  into  friendly 
relations  with  a  number  of  the  leading  authors 
of  the  day,  a  group  which  included  Scott, 
Moore,  and  Southey.  Scott  had,  in  fact, 
sought  him  out  very  promptly,  having  been 
fascinated  some  years  earlier  by  the  original¬ 
ity  of  the  humor  shown  in  Knickerbocker’s 
New  York.  He  wrote  at  the  time  to  Murray: 
“We  have  been  devoting  some  pleasant  hours 
to  that  most  excellently  jocose  history  of  New 
York.  .  .  .  Our  sides  are  actually  sore 

with  laughing.’’ 

After  a  couple  of  years  of  rather  desultory 
travelling  and  scribbling,  Irving  completed 
the  series  of  papers  which  was  published  in 
1818  under  the  title  of  The  Sketch-Book.  It 
is  probably  by  this  volume  that  he  is  still 
today  best  known  among  readers  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  The  book  has  been 
translated  into  almost  every  European  tongue, 
and  it  served  for  many  years,  and  possibly 
still  serves,  in  France  and  in  Germany  as  a 
model  of  English  style,  and  as  a  text-book 
from  which  students  are  taught  their  English. 
In  this  latter  role  it  replaced  the  Spectator  of 


His  Life  and  WorK.  13 

Addison.  If  the  style  of  some  of  our  older 
German  friends  strikes  us  to-day  as  somewhat 
stilted  and  antiquated,  it  may  be  considered 
as  due  to  the  fact  of  their  having  in  their  early 
youth  taken  in  their  English  through  Addison. 

The  Sketch-Book  was  about  ready  for  the 
press  when  Irving  received  from  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  an  offer  of  the  position  of  chief 
clerk  of  the  Navy  Department,  with  a  salary 
(large  for  that  time)  of  $2400.  In  those  ear¬ 
lier  days  of  the  Republic  positions  of  this  kind 
were  held  under  tenure  of  good  behavior,  and 
such  an  appointment  would  therefore  have 
meant  for  Irving  a  competency  free  from 
care,  upon  which  he  could  depend  for  a  num¬ 
ber  of  years. 

Absorbed  as  he  was,  however,  at  this  time 
in  literary  plans,  he  was  not  willing  to  bind 
himself  with  the  trammels  of  office,  and  the 
offer  was  declined.  It  is  possible  that  in  the 
course  of  the  next  few  months  the  young 
writer  rather  regretted  his  decision,  as  The 
Sketch-Book  was  refused  by  Murray  and  by 
other  of  the  leading  publishers,  and  he  found 
himself  discouraged  as  to  the  prospects  of 
securing  for  it  a  hearing.  He  finally,  how¬ 
ever,  risked  the  publication  of  a  small  edition 
on  his  own  account,  and  the  work  won  for 
itself  so  immediate  a  reputation  that,  a  year 
later,  Murray  was  very  glad  to  reconsider  his 


1 4  W asHington  Irving  : 

former  conclusion  and  took  charge  of  the  book 
under  a  satisfactory  arrangement. 

The  publication  by  Murray  of  The  Sketch- 
Book ,  and,  two  years  later,  of  Bracebridge 
Hall  brought  Irving  at  once  into  repute  with 
the  most  attractive  literary  circles  in  Great 
Britain.  His  publisher  was  Murray  the  sec¬ 
ond,  who  had  on  his  list  the  works  of  Byron, 
Southey,  Coleridge,  Disraeli  the  elder,  and 
other  of  the  leading  writers  of  the  time,  and 
whose  imprint  was  accepted  as  stamping  a 
book  with  literary  importance. 

After  a  year  or  two  spent  in  travelling  on 
the  Continent,  Irving  was  appointed  attache 
to  the  legation  at  Madrid,  where  he  took 
up  his  residence  in  1826.  The  appointment 
came  to  him  from  Alexander  Everett,  at  that 
time  Minister  of  State,  who  was  an  old  friend 
and  who  had  a  cordial  interest  in  Irving’s 
literary  undertakings. 

In  sending  him  the  appointment  Everett 
took  pains  at  once  to  place  before  him  a  lit¬ 
erary  suggestion.  He  proposed  that  Irving 
should  make  a  translation  of  the  history  that 
Senor  Navarrete,  of  the  Madrid  Historical 
Society,  had  at  that  time  in  preparation  of 
the  voyages  of  Columbus.  After  due  con¬ 
sideration  Irving  decided  against  the  plan  for 
the  translation,  on  the  ground  that  Navarrete 
had  prepared  a  mass  of  records  rather  than  a 


His  Life  and  AA^orK. 


15 


biography.  Irving  came,  however,  into  pleas¬ 
ant  personal  relations  with  the  historian,  who  - 
placed  his  materials  freely  at  the  disposition 
of  the  young  American;  and  with  these  ma¬ 
terials  Irving  began  at  once  the  preparation 
of  the  biography.  He  devoted  to  this  the 
year  1826  and  brought  it  to  completion  in 
the  spring  of  1 8  2  7 .  It  may  be  of  interest  to  the 
present  reader  of  Irving’s  Columbus  to  note 
the  following  extract  from  a  German  historian 
with  whom  Irving  appears  not  to  have  been 
acquainted.  Oscar  Peschel  states,  in  his  His¬ 
tory  of  the  Age  of  Discoveries  (Stuttgart,  1848), 
that  ‘‘Columbus  brooded  over  the  prophetic 
song  of  the  chorus  in  the  Medea  of  Seneca’’: 

“Venient  annis  saecula  seris 
Quibus  Oceanus  vincula  serum 
Laxet,  et  ingens  pateat  tellus, 

Tethysque  novos  delegat  orbes, 

Nec  sit  terris  ultima  Thule.” 

(Distant  the  age,  but  surely  it  will  come, 

When  Ocean  shall  relax  the  bonds  of  men 
And  to  them  open  all  the  great  wide  earth. 

Then  Tethys  will  reveal  worlds  now  unknown, 
And  no  far  Thule  can  be  called  “  the  last.”) 

In  the  summer  of  1827  the  Life  of  Columbus 
was  accepted  by  Murray,  who  writes  concern¬ 
ing  it :  “It  is  beautiful.  By  far  the  best  thing 
Irving  has  ever  done.”  Murray  paid  for  the 
English  rights  £3 000.  This  first  London 


1 6  AiVasHington  Irving: 

edition  was  published  in  four  octavo  volumes. 
The  arrangement  for  the  American  edition 
was  made  with  Carvell  &  Co.  of  New  York. 
At  about  the  same  time  Carey,  Lea  &  Blan¬ 
chard  of  Philadelphia  secured  from  Irving  the 
right  to  publish  for  a  term  of  seven  years  his 
four  preceding  works,  paying  him  for  the 
privilege  $600  per  annum. 

The  Columbus  met  with  very  cordial  appre¬ 
ciation  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Southey 
writes  from  London,  “This  work  places  Irving 
at  the  front  of  modern  biographers.”  Ed¬ 
ward  Everett  says  that  “through  the  Colum¬ 
bus  Irving  has  secured  the  position  of  founder 
of  the  American  school  of  polite  learning.” 

The  Columbus  was  completed,  but  Irving 
still  found  himself  fascinated  with  the  exam¬ 
ination  of  the  Spanish  chronicles.  He  made 
long  sojourns  in  Granada,  living  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Alhambra  Palace,  and  later 
he  took  up  his  residence  for  a  number  of 
months  in  Seville.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
he  prepared  the  collection  of  Legends  of  the 
Alhambra ,  and  in  the  year  following  he  com¬ 
pleted  his  Conquest  of  Granada. 

It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  1828  that  Irving 
declined  an  offer  of  one  hundred  guineas  to 
write  an  article  for  the  British  Quarterly  Re¬ 
view  (of  which  his  friend  Murray  was  the  pub¬ 
lisher),  on  the  ground,  as  he  wrote,  that  “the 


MMM&mmi 


iSflasMSiisiaaapMiraBaaBni 


The  Cladera  Portrait 


of  Christopher  Columbus 


1 8  W asHington  Irving  : 

Review  has  been  so  persistently  hostile  to  our 
country  that  I  cannot  draw  a  pen  in  its  ser¬ 
vice.”  This  episode  may  count  as  a  fair  re¬ 
joinder  to  certain  of  the  home  critics  who  were 
then  accusing  Irving  (as,  half  a  century  later, 
Lowell  was  in  like  manner  accused)  of  having 
become  so  much  absorbed  in  his  English  sym¬ 
pathies  as  to  have  lost  touch  with  the  patriot¬ 
ism  of  his  native  land. 

In  the  same  year  Irving  declined  a  further 
suggestion  from  Murray  to  take  charge  as 
editor,  at  a  salary  of  ^jiooo  a  year,  of  a 
monthly  magazine  that  Murray  had  in  plan. 
It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  plan  was  put  to 
one  side  and  did  not  take  shape  until  seventy- 
one  years  later,  when  John  Murray  the  fourth 
(the  grandson  of  Irving’s  Murray)  estab¬ 
lished  the  Monthly  Review. 

In  1829  Irving  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Academy  of  History  in  Madrid.  The 
recognition  that  came  to  him  from  Spain  was 
only  in  the  form  of  honours  of  this  kind. 
Spanish  editions  of  his  books  had  been  pro¬ 
duced  and  were  in  active  demand,  but  for 
these  editions  the  author  received  no  com¬ 
pensation.  Irving  was  still  in  Spain  at  the 
time  of  the  election  to  the  presidency  of  Gen¬ 
eral  J ackson.  He  writes  to  one  of  his  brothers 
just  before  the  inauguration:  “As  to  the  old 
General,  with  all  his  ‘  hickory  ’  characteristics. 


“  He  used  to  tell  his  story  to  every  stranger  that  arrived  at 

Mr.  Doolittle’s  hotel.” 

(Half-tone  reproduction  of  photogravure  in  “  Rip  Van  Winkle.”) 


19 


20 


WasHington  Irving: 


I  judge  he  has  good  stuff  in  him  and  will  make 
a  sagacious,  independent,  high-spirited  Presi¬ 
dent.  I  doubt  his  proving  as  high-handed  as 
many  are  anticipating." 

In  July,  1829,  Louis  McLane,  Minister  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  appointed  Irving  Sec¬ 
retary  of  Legation,  and  he  again  took  up  his 
residence  in  London.  In  1830  the  Royal  So¬ 
ciety  of  Literature  of  England  voted  him,  as  a 
recognition  of  his  service  to  history  and  to 
literature,  one  of  its  ten-guinea  gold  medals. 
The  recognition  was  said  to  have  been  given 
more  particularly  on  the  ground  of  the  repute 
secured  for  the  Life  of  Columbus.  The  other 
medal  of  that  year  was  given  to  Hallam  for 
his  History  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

In  1831  Irving  was  made  an  LL.D.  of  Ox¬ 
ford.  The  ceremony  of  the  installation  was 
a  serious  experience  for  a  man  of  his  shy  and 
retiring  habits.  As  he  sat  in  the  Senate  Hall 
the  students  saluted  him  with  cries  of  “  Here 
comes  old  Knickerbocker!"  “How  about 
Ichabod  Crane?”  “Has  Rip  Van  Winkle 
waked  up  yet?”  and,  “Who  discovered  Co¬ 
lumbus  ?  ’  ’ 

In  September,  1831,  Irving  dined  with 
Scott.  It  was  their  last  meeting.  The  great 
novelist  was  already  seriously  broken  down, 
having  exhausted  himself  in  the  gigantic 
efforts  made  during  the  previous  five  years  to 


His  Life  and  AVorK.  21 

earn  with  his  pen  sufficient  to  pay  off  the  in¬ 
debtedness  incurred  through  his  partnership 
with  the  Ballantynes  and  through  the  ad¬ 
vances  made  by  Constable.  During  Irving’s 
sojourn  in  London,  William  Cullen  Bryant  be¬ 
spoke  his  friendly  service  in  securing  publica¬ 
tion  in  England  for  his  first  volume  of  poems. 
The  book  was  declined  by  Murray,  but  Irving 
finally  arranged  to  get  it  published  by  An¬ 
drews,  the  latter  making  it  a  condition  that 
the  volume  should  bear  Irving’s  name  as  edi¬ 
tor.  The  London  publisher  found  himself 
troubled  by  the  following  lines  in  the  poem  on 
Marion: 

“The  British  foeman  trembles 

When  Marion’s  name  is  heard.” 

Andrews  feared  that  these  lines  would  pro¬ 
voke  antagonism,  and  Irving,  desiring  to 
avoid  anything  that  might  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  success  of  the  volume,  took  the  respon¬ 
sibility  of  changing  the  verse,  so  that  it  read: 

“The  foeman  trembles  in  his  camp 
When  Marion’s  name  is  heard.” 

Irving’s  action  was  sharply  criticised  by 
William  Leggett  (then  editor  of  the  New  York 
Evening  Post )  and  others,  and  Bryant  himself 
felt  that  a  liberty  had  been  taken.  Later, 
however,  he  wrote  with  appreciation  of  the 
friendly  care  shown  by  his  representative. 


AVasHington  Irving: 


O  O 

fi  g-  N  1832,  Irving  returned  to 
New  York,  having  been 
absent  from  the  country 
for  seventeen  years.  His 
fellow-citizens  welcomed 
him  with  a  banquet  given 
in  the  City  Hotel,  some¬ 
what  to  Irving’s  discom¬ 
fiture,  as  he  had  a  great 
dread  of  public  functions 
of  any  kind,  and  was  espe¬ 
cially  nervous  in  any  attempt  at  public  speak¬ 
ing.  The  orator  of  the  evening,  John  Duer, 
a  well-known  lawyer,  addressed  him  as  “the 
Dutch  Herodotus.’’ 

Later  in  the  same  year  Irving  made  a  jour¬ 
ney  through  the  territory  of  the  Southwest,  an 
account  of  which  he  afterwards  printed  under 
the  title  of  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies  (this  paper 
is  contained  in  the  volume  Crayon  Miscel¬ 
lany ).  Irving’s  description  of  St.  Louis  as  a 
frontier  post,  and  of  the  great  wilderness  ex¬ 
tending  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  makes 
to-day  interesting  reading.  Returning  from 
this  journey  by  way  of  New  Orleans,  he  vis¬ 
ited  Columbia,  S.  C.,  where  he  was  the  guest 
of  Governor  Hamilton.  The  Governor  had 
just  transmitted  in  a  message  to  the  legisla¬ 
ture  the  edict  of  nullification.  The  Governor 
insisted  that  Irving  must  certainly  repeat  his 


Sunnyside,”  the  home  of  Washington  Irving. 


24 


Washington  Irving: 


visit  to  the  State.  “Certainly,”  responded 
the  guest ;  “I  will  come  with  the  first  troops. ” 

In  1836  Irving  declined  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  Congress,  and  in  the  following 
year  he  declined  the  Tammany  nomination 
for  Mavor  of  New  York  and  President  Van 
Buren’s  offer  of  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Navy. 

During  these  years  he  was  building  the 
little  Dutch  cottage  on  the  Hudson  (south  of 
Tarry  town),  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of 
Wolfert’s  Roost,  and  was  absorbing  himself  in 
the  life  of  a  country  gentleman.  He  writes  to 
his  friend  Halleck,  “You  must  contrive  to 
come  up  at  once  to  see  my  new  pig.  He  is  a 
darling.” 

In  1840  Irving  completed  his  Life  of  Gold¬ 
smith ,  a  subject  which  he  has  treated  with 
the  keenest  personal  sympathy.  In  1842 
Irving  accepted  from  President  Tyler  the  ap¬ 
pointment  of  Minister  to  Spain.  The  sugges¬ 
tion  for  Tyler’s  selection  came  from  Daniel 
Webster,  at  that  time  Secretary  of  State. 
Irving’s  third  sojourn  in  Spain  was  for  him 
exceedingly  attractive.  He  continued  his  re¬ 
searches  in  Spanish  literature  and  legends, 
and  was  accepted  by  the  men  of  letters  of 
Spain  as  one  of  themselves.  Some  of  the  re¬ 
sults  of  these  later  studies  were  afterwards 
given  to  the  public  in  the  attractive  volumes 
called  Spanish  Papers. 


The  Old  Dutch  Church,  Sleepy  Hollow. 

(From  a  drawing  by  W.  J.  Wilson.) 


26  "WasHington  Irving: 


In  returning  to  New  York  in  1847  Irving 
was  met  with  a  serious  disappointment.  His 
books  were  out  of  print,  at  least  in  the  United 
States,  and  his  publishers,  Carey,  Lea  & 
Blanchard  of  Philadelphia,  assured  him  that 
there  was  for  them  no  longer  any  public  de¬ 
mand,  and  that  it  would  be  an  unprofitable 
venture  to  undertake  to  put  upon  the  market 
new  editions.  They  pointed  out  to  him  that 
the  public  taste  had  changed,  and  that  a  new 
style  of  authorship  was  now  in  vogue.  The 
books  had,  in  fact,  been  out  of  print  since 
1845,  but  that  time  Irving,  being  still  in 
Spain,  had  concluded  that  the  arrangements 
for  revised  editions  might  wait  for  his  return. 
To  be  told  now  by  experienced  publishers, 
who  believed  themselves  to  be  fully  informed 
as  to  the  taste  of  the  American  public,  that 
The  Sketch-Book ,  The  Legends  of  the  Alham¬ 
bra,  Bracebridge  Hall ,  Knickerbocker's  New 
York ,  and  The  Life  of  Columbus ,  notwith¬ 
standing  their  original  prestige,  had  had  their 
day  and  were  not  wanted  by  the  new  genera¬ 
tion,  was  a  serious  shock  to  Irving,  not  only 
on  the  ground  of  the  blow  to  his  confidence  in 
himself  as  an  author,  but  because  his  savings 
were  inconsiderable  and  he  needed  the  con¬ 
tinued  income  that  he  had  hoped  to  secure 
from  his  pen. 

His  personal  wants  were  few,  but  he  had 


His  Life  and  WorK. 


27 


always  used,  generously  among  his  large  circle 
of  relatives  such  resources  as  he  possessed, 
and,  having  neither  wife  nor  child,  he  had 
made  a  home  at  Sunnyside  for  an  aged 
brother  and  two  nieces. 

Some  Western  land  investments  (which  in 
later  years  became  profitable)  were  at  this 
time  liabilities  instead  of  resources,  and  his 
immediate  financial  prospects  seemed  to  be 
discouraging  enough. 

He  had  a  desk  in  the  office  of  his  brother, 
John  Treat  Irving,  with  whom  he  had  pre¬ 
viously  studied,  and  to  him  he  now  spoke, 
probably  half  jestingly,  of  the  necessity  of 
resuming  the  practice  of  law.  He  was  at  this 
time  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  as  it  was 
nearly  forty  vears  since  he  had  touched  a 
law-book  it  is  hardly  likely  that  he  could  have 
made  himself  of  much  value  as  a  counsellor. 
One  morning  early  in  1848,  Irving  came  into 
his  brother’s  office  in  a  joyful  frame  of  mind. 
He  tossed  a  letter  over  to  his  brother,  saying: 
“  John,  here  is  a  fool  of  a  publisher  willing  to 
give  me  $1000  a  year  to  go  on  scribbling.” 
The  “fool  of  a  publisher”  was  the  late  Geo.  P. 
Putnam,  who  had  recently  returned  from 
London,  where  he  had  for  eight  years  been 
engaged  in  inducing  the  English  public  to  buy 
American  books,  an  experiment,  by  the  way, 
in  which  his  sons,  half  a  century  later,  are  still 


28  Washington  Irvines 

interesting  themselves.  In  the  intervals  of 
his  London  business,  Mr.  Putnam  had  found 
time  to  write  and  to  publish  a  useful  little 


George  Palmer  Putnam. 


volume  called  American  Facts ,  which  had  been 
planned  to  correct  the  long  series  of  British 
misconceptions  and  misrepresentations  con¬ 
cerning  men  and  things  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 


His  Life  and  AA^orK.  29 


Mr.  Putnam  now  purposed  to  issue  a  uni¬ 
form  revised  edition  of  all  of  Irving’s  exist¬ 
ing  writings,  with  which  should  be  associated 
such  books  as  he  might  later  complete;  and 
to  pay  to  the  author  a  royalty  on  each  copy 


sold,  guaranteeing  against  such  royalty  for 
the  first  year  the  sum  of  $1000;  for  the  sec¬ 
ond,  $1500;  and  for  each  of  the  three  years 
succeeding,  $2000. 

It  may  be  mentioned  as  an  evidence  of  the 
accuracy  of  the  publisher’s  judgment  that  the 


30  Washington  Irvings 

payments  during  the  years  in  which  this  guar¬ 
antee  continued  were  always  in  excess  of  the 
amounts  contracted  for. 

In  1849,  the  London  publisher,  Bohn,  began 
to  print  unauthorized  editions  of  the  various 
books  of  Mr.  Irving,  for  the  authority  to 
publish  the  authorized  editions  of  which  Mr. 
Murray  and  Mr.  Bentley  had  made  liberal 
payments.  A  series  of  litigations  ensued,  as  a 
result  of  which  Murray  and  Bentley,  discour¬ 
aged  with  the  long  fight  and  with  the  great 
law  expense  incurred  in  securing  protection 
under  the  existing  copyright  law,  accepted 
the  offer  of  the  “pirate”  for  the  purchase,  at 
a  merely  nominal  price,  of  their  “rights,”  and 
Irving’s  works  came  to  be  included  in  the 
Bohn  Standard  Library  Series. 

British  copyright  was,  in  1850,  in  a  very 
unsatisfactory  condition,  and  it  was  not 
easy  to  ascertain  from  its  provisions  just 
what  rights  “alien  authors”  could  maintain. 
So  far  as  American  authors  were  concerned, 
this  uncertainty  continued  until  the  comple¬ 
tion  of  the  international  copyright  arrange¬ 
ment  of  1891. 

As  one  result  of  the  transfer  to  Bohn  of  Ir¬ 
ving’s  English  editions,  he  found  that  he 
could  no  longer  depend  upon  any  material 
English  receipts  for  his  later  works.  For  the 
“right”  to  publish  the  English  edition  of  The 


The  Ascension  of  Mahomet. 

From  D’Ohsson’s  Tableau  General  de  T  Empire  Othoman 

31 


32 


W ashington  Irving : 


Life  of  W ashington  Bohn  paid  the  sum  of  ^50, 
which  was  for  the  author  a  sad  reduction  from 
the  ^3000  that  Murray  had  given  him  for  the 
Columbus. 

In  December,  1852,  Irving  wrote  to  his  pub¬ 
lisher,  Mr.  Putnam,  a  letter  which,  as  express¬ 
ing  both  the  sense  of  fairness  and  the  modesty 
of  nature  of  the  man  is  worth  quoting: 

'‘For  my  own  part,  let  me  say  how  sensibly 
I  appreciate  the  kind  tone  and  expressions  of 
your  letter ;  but  as  to  )rour  talk  of  ‘  obliga¬ 
tions  ’  to  me,  I  am  conscious  of  none  that  have 
not  been  fully  counterbalanced  on  your  part, 
and  I  take  pleasure  in  expressing  the  great 
satisfaction  I  have  derived  through  all  our 
intercourse  from  your  amiable,  obliging,  and 
honorable  conduct.  Indeed,  I  never  had 
dealings  with  any  man,  whether  in  the  wmy  of 
business  or  of  friendship,  more  perfectly  free 
from  alloy.  That  those  dealings  have  been 
profitable  is  mainly  owing  to  your  own  sagac¬ 
ity  and  enterprise.  You  had  confidence  in 
the  continued  vitality  of  my  writings.  .  .  . 

You  called  them  again  into  active  existence 
and  gave  them  a  circulation  that  has,  I  be¬ 
lieve,  surprised  even  yourself.  In  rejoicing  at 
their  success,  my  satisfaction  is  doubly  en¬ 
hanced  by  the  idea  that  you  share  in  the 
benefits  derived  from  it.  Wishing  you  that 
continued  prosperity  in  business  which  your 


The  House  of  Astor  where  Irving  Wrote  “Astoria. 


34  W asHington  Irving  s 

upright,  enterprising,  tasteful,  and  liberal 
mode  of  conducting  it  merits  and  is  calculated 


Washington  Irving. 

Minister  to  Spain. 

to  ensure,  and  invoking  on  you  and  yours  a 
happy  New  Year,  I  remain 

“Very  truly  and  heartily  yours, 

“Washington  Irving.” 


That  these  expressions  of  friendship  were 


M 


jp;v» 

*  vj» ,  -  -,  3w 

■fst,  '*' 


Fall  of  Braddock. 

(From  a  painting  by  C.  Scliucssele.) 


36  Washington  Irving;: 


not  mere  empty  courtesy,  Irving  had  an  op¬ 
portunity  a  few  years  later  of  making  clear. 
In  1857,  partly  because  of  the  business  mis¬ 
management  of  his  financial  partner  and 
partly  on  the  ground  of  the  general  disasters 
of  the  year,  Mr.  Putnam  was  obliged  to  make 
an  assignment  of  his  business.  Irving  re¬ 
ceived  a  number  of  propositions  from  other 
publishers  for  the  transfer  of  his  books,  the 
commercial  value  of  which  had  now  become 
fully  appreciated.  From  some  of  these  prop¬ 
ositions  Irving  could  undoubtedly  have  se¬ 
cured  much  more  satisfactory  returns  than 
were  coming  to  him  under  the  existing  ar¬ 
rangement.  He  declined  them  all,  however, 
writing  to  Mr.  Putnam  to  the  effect  that,  so 
long  as  a  Putnam  remained  in  the  publishing 
business,  he  purposed  to  retain  for  his  books 
the  Putnam  imprint. 

He  arranged  with  the  assignee  to  purchase 
from  the  estate  the  plates  and  the  publication 
agreements  for  his  books.  He  held  these 
plates  for  some  years,  until  Mr.  Putnam  was 
again  in  a  position  to  control  them,  and  then 
restored  them  to  his  publisher,  resuming  the 
old  publishing  arrangement  and  waiving  the 
larger  proceeds  to  which,  as  the  owner  of 
the  plates,  he  would  have  continued  to  be  en¬ 
titled.  Such  an  episode  is  an  interesting  one 
in  the  long  history  of  the  relations  of  authors 


38  Washington  Irving: 


with  publishers,  and  it  may  be  considered  as 
equally  creditable  to  both  parties. 

Irving  found  himself  not  a  little  perplexed 
with  one  of  his  publisher’s  presents.  Mr. 
Putnam  had  always  protested  against  the 
method  or  lack  of  method  with  which  the  au¬ 
thor  would  pile  up  on  one  modest  writing- 
table  his  mass  of  MSS.,  notes,  reference  books, 
etc. ;  and  took  occasion  to  send  him  a  prop¬ 
erly  arranged  desk,  asking  only  in  return  that 
he  might  have  the  old  table.  Irving  wrote  to 
his  publisher,  trying  to  be  grateful  for  the 
attention,  but  admitting  that  since  he  had 
placed  his  papers  in  the  several  pigeon-holes 
where  they  were  supposed  to  belong,  he  had 
never  been  able  to  find  anything. 

The  final  and,  in  some  respects,  the  greatest 
of  Irving’s  literary  productions,  the  Life  of 
Washington ,  was  completed  on  his  seventy- 
sixth  birthday,  April  3,  1859  ;  and  a  month  or 
two  later  he  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the 
printed  volume.  His  death  came  on  a  quiet 
day  in  November  of  the  same  year. 

George  William  Curtis,  a  man  whose  sweet¬ 
ness  and  refinement  of  nature  as  well  as  the 
special  tone  of  his  literary  quality  brought 
him  into  keen  sympathy  with  the  author  of 
The  Sketch-Book ,  wrote  after  Irving’s  death  as 
follows:  “With  Irving  the  man  and  the  au¬ 
thor  were  one.  The  same  twinkling  humor, 


His  Life  and  WorK.  39 


untouched  by  personal  venom,  the  same 
sweetness,  geniality,  and  grace  .  .  .  which 

endeared  the  writer  to  his  readers,  endeared 


Irving’s  Resting-Place. 


the  man  to  his  friends.  Gifted  with  a  happy 
temperament,  with  that  cheerful  balance  of 
thought  and  feeling  which  begets  the  sym¬ 
pathy  that  prevents  bitter  animosity,  he  lived 


40 


Washington  Irving: 


through  the  sharpest  struggles  of  our  politics, 
not  without  interest,  but  without  bitterness, 
and  holding  the  tenderest  respect  of  every 
party. 

“When  his  death  was  known,  there  was  no 
class  of  men  who  more  sincerely  deplored  him 
than  those  of  his  own  vocation.  The  older 
authors  felt  that  a  friend,  not  a  rival — the 
younger,  that  a  father — had  gone.  There  is 
not  a  young  literary  aspirant  in  the  country 
who,  if  he  ever  personally  met  Irving,  did  not 
hear  from  him  the  kindest  words  of  sympathy, 
regard,  and  encouragement.  There  is  none 
of  the  older  rank  who,  knowing  him,  did  not 
love  him.  He  belonged  to  no  clique,  no  party 
in  his  own  profession,  more  than  in  any  other 
of  the  great  interests  of  life,  and  that  not  by 
any  wilful  independence  or  neutrality  armed 
against  all  comers,  but  by  the  natural  catho¬ 
licity  of  his  nature.” 

To  those  of  the  present  day  who  have  felt 
the  charm  of  a  personal  relation  with  the 
younger  writer,  it  would  seem  as  if  these 
words  were  describing  not  only  Washington 
Irving,  but  George  William  Curtis. 

This  brief  account  of  the  Knickerbocker 
author  can,  I  think,  be  appropriately  con¬ 
cluded  with  the  lines  in  which  he  was  so  hap¬ 
pily  characterized  by  another  good  American, 
also  of  kindred  nature.  The  Fable  for  Critics 


His  Life  and  WorK. 


4i 


was  published  in  1848,  when  Irving  was  sixty- 
five.  Lowell,  then  a  youngster  in  his  twen¬ 
ties,  writes: 

“What!  Irving?  thrice  welcome,  warm  heart  and 
fine  brain, 

You  bring  back  the  happiest  spirit  from  Spain, 
And  the  gravest,  sweet  humor  that  ever  were  there 
Since  Cervantes  met  death  in  his  gentle  despair. 
Nay,  don’t  be  embarrassed,  nor  look  so  beseeching; 
I  sha’n’t  run  directly  against  my  own  preaching! 
And,  having  just  laughed  at  their  Raphaels  and 
Dantes, 

Go  to  setting  you  up  beside  matchless  Cervantes. 
But  allow  me  to  speak  what  I  honestly  feel: 

To  a  true  poet-heart  add  the  fun  of  Dick  Steele, 
Throw  in  all  of  Addison,  minus  the  chill, 

With  the  whole  of  that  partnership’s  stock  and 
good  will, 

Mix  well,  and  while  stirring,  hum  o’er,  as  a  spell, 
The  ‘Fine  Old  English  Gentleman,’  simmer  it  well, 
Sweeten  just  to  your  own  private  liking,  then 
strain, 

That  only  the  finest  and  clearest  remain, 

Let  it  stand  out  of  doors  till  a  soul  it  receives 
From  the  warm,  lazy  sun  loitering  down  through 
green  leaves, 

When  you  ’ll  find  a  choice  nature,  not  wholly 
deserving 

A  name  either  English  or  Yankee — just  Irving.” 


G.  H.  P. 


